Stitched Together
by Disneyholica24
Summary: A p.o.v about Doctor Franken Stein's entire life from when he began to fascinate, how his parents felt about what he was doing, how his mind warped, how he started caring about his students, and the most important thing in his life- Marie Mjoliner. This is how their relationship started and the beginning of a new life for the mad man.


[AN: Some disturbing elements below, as expected when dealing with Stein's inner thoughts. Also, sweet -n- sour lemons will be there too. Enjoy!]

I have never been a man of morality and I often would question my humanity. Days on end, nights upon nights I would sit alone in a vast, empty, dark void of timelessness and space pondering my own existence and if I was able to feel… to truly feel and care. I have always wondered if I can emote like a normal being or even live out my life as one. My mind is full of electrocuted jumbled up wires all on a course to fry my own brain and fill it with toxins about whatever my disturbed self comes up with. I'm filled to the brim with creeping insanity and this overwhelming, burning sensation of a lusty dark desire to slice open creatures. Dragging my scalpel through the skin of a wriggling, weak, squealing "experiment" and watching it slowly peel back to reveal the bloody prizes inside is one of my very favorite things to do.

Ever since I was a child I've loved- no, been infatuated with this almost sexually arousing little hobby of mine. Torturing, dismantling, destroying, dissecting, and experimenting with the general animal brought me a sickly-sweet filling of both disgust and joy. Soon there was nothing but joy and this lingering fascination of what could lie inside different species even if in the end it was always the same pulsating heart, the same long curling intestine, the same distended stomach, the same quivering lungs.

It mattered not my boyhood was occupied, for a time, by the sheer elation I received from being doused in blood and prodding around inside the cavities of furry, feathered, and four legged companions. I kept jars of their body parts in my room and stared at them endlessly in my twisted glee and wonder. After a while though it wasn't enough. I needed something bigger, something a little more complex…. Something that wouldn't just shriek in an animalistic way… something that would scream or better yet beg for its miserable little life.

Humans and their petty, greedy, selfish, or vain little ways seemed to always keep me somewhat interested. They were all unique and different both outside and in but I wasn't particular about the outside, now was I? They keep striving to reach this unreachable peak in a desperate attempt to make something of themselves and the cast majority of them are less human than even I value myself. They do whatever they can to get to their egotistical goals whether it's for money or power they are sicker than I.

In the long run friends, family, lovers…they all mean nothing. In that way, they are distant and relatable to me. Tearing themselves away from the important things just to sate their thirst for what they truly want out of life, just to grasp ahold of their own needs. It is all about them and whatever turns their little gears. However, I have always felt disjointed and dissimilar from them in many ways. I have never made too much personal connection with people.

I was always the type to sit in the back of class and glare at each of the students wandering how they would plead on a cold metal table, just how their voice would cry out, just how they would offer anything and everything before watching in sheer horror as they were skinned alive. Oh how I would revel in their spilled blood, how I would laugh at their torment, and how I would only receive sadness once it was over only to be delighted that I could toy with their corpse a little. I would keep them alive as long as I could and watch them cry from their pretty little eyeballs and apologize through their lying pretty mouths.

None of them deserved to live they all deserved to be my experiment, to service my insane fetishes. Not even those that dared to call me friend could pull me out of my stupor. I got a wild kick from scaring people, from showing off my demented side, from bathing in blood, from losing my sanity if I ever had any. Nothing in the whole world made my heart shine like that. My brain was scattered in a million pieces and all I could hear was white noise composed with the carious yelps of all my victims.

I was a murderous sadist and at the same time leveled to be a rational scientist who loved his work. I was no humanitarian, no weakling that could cry or love. All that mattered was who would be on the block next, who would I tear asunder. I lost myself in my laboratory, alone and happy to be so, I lost myself down the dim lit path that led to nowhere. My insanity consumed me almost entirely at times. I took up smoking just for the hell of it, to see what it would do to me. I experimented on myself and received a nice jolt of masochistic pleasure from doing so but I didn't scream or cry, my hand was steady, my nerves were steel.

I'm not normal, I know that I'm not. Not in the conventional sense, any who. By all means I'm as normal as your definition and somewhere else that definition doesn't hold firm. The world to me wasn't just this or that there were too many opinions on every matter. Each person pitting their own justice and morale against the other. Then there was me. Me against the world. I would take down the world, dissect it in two. Human lives did not matter to me. My own life almost didn't matter to me. Love never touched me. Friendship never moved me. Children, animals, babies, women, men, fathers, mothers, and Lord Death himself. I care little for all.

As I grew into a man I kept my detachment and I kept my distance. I kept to myself and still messed around with those that I found interesting. It began to be that I wanted to open up those that were of value instead of just anyone. A rare or endangered species of animal now held more intrigue than something common place and the same was said of people. A special soul or different type of meister, weapon, or exclusive unusual ability would peak my strong maddening yearning for massacre or dismemberment rather than attacking the entirety of humanity. For instance, my partner, Spirit Albarn, was one of the first to give me something more than just the usual.

He was my partner and someone who named me as a companion of sorts though his tolerance for me and my shenanigans was low, it was always fun to see him jump out of his skin at a particular prank I pulled or having this secret knowledge that I had tweaked with his body overnight. Since he was so close to me it was easy access and I so enjoyed doing I could keep going at him multiple times with a well-placed knife without him even knowing it or rather I would keep it a surprise for a while then whisper what I had done. He couldn't leave unlike some. He HAD to stay and that really put a smile on my face.

He was a captive victim, an audience for my shocking little show, and on top of it all he was as human as they come. He had a wife, a family, he was a good person with some minor quirks. He was a weapon and he tried his hardest to be inclusive with me, inviting me places but soon he realized I was not fit for such things and left me alone again. As soon as the going got good he deserted me and never looked back. It turned out he did the same thing with his wife and it was oh so delightfully twisted of me to keep reminding him of his flaw and crumbling of his family dynamic. It was just another way to make him sick of me. People who attempt to make me more normal make me laugh and therefore are perfect candidates for a trip to the lab and a visit from the good doctor. If you hunger for something delicious then one might go far for it but if it's right there always and willing then it is all the better. Their emotions for me were most likely fleeting little bits of something they could not help. They would always leave.

As I became a teacher my brain and heart started this shift. When was it that I started to care about these kids? By all means I should be taking their trust in me and using it to lure them into my domain. I've tricked them once but as time went on the joking got less and less. With so much to think about and so much training to do I could not focus on the tasks I had. I found less time to open up rib cages which gave people more time to open up me. Suddenly I was the experiment and I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about it all. When was it I started to focus on these kids and what they liked, how they operated, what they did, and their beliefs? Why do I give a damn?

I followed the lives and troubles of Soul Evans, musician, weapon, class cool guy. Maka Albarn, Grigori soul meister, book lover, friend to all. Tsubaki Natasakusa, shy, multi weapon, likes green tea. Black Star, arrogant, calls himself god, son of star clan. Death the Kid, rational, symmetry addict, next in the death throne. Elizabeth and Patricia Thompson, sisters, inatentful, tough. And the many facets of them that come with them have all been stored in my head. These are my students- mine. Mine to mold and shape and…care for.

Not just something to fuck around with they are people who listen to me, trust me, rely on me. If it weren't for Asura and his madness I would have forgotten entirely who I was. I am the stitch faced doctor who stitched a smile onto a fake face I called my own, I jammed a screw into my cranium to signify how screwed up the interior mechanisms of my brain truly are, my home is a shambled mess of vials, beakers, blood stains, cobwebs, and haunting echoes of sublime torture, and my heart is just a vessel it doesn't truly reflect any profound emotions. Sympathetic and empathetic… that is not me and Asura showed me the truth of what I was, who I really was, and what I could be if I gave into that shambling static and dizzying white noise.

It was a straight dive into the everlasting pool of insanity that drowned me further and further with no chance of escape. I had all the bodies I could ever want all neatly piled up for my disposal, the world was my oyster to pry open to my hearts content, I could practically shower in that beautiful crimson I so loved, my scalpel and tools could become a second hand. I would rip every limb and destroy every being displaying their organs on the wall like decorations, and I had a devious fiend at my side who reveled in the pleasures with me. A woman who helped dig me into this graveyard of wonder where my limits knew no bounds and every fancy I had could take flight. There was no such things as those I held close and in time even this snaky woman will become just another fly in the net. Everyone will. Everything was seemingly perfect but there was only one problem. I wanted to escape. There was a part of me that had enjoyed it all but the more logical part of me, the scientist, the chemist, the doctor, the teacher, the…friend, had begun to want to claw his way out of the tomb of pure lunacy and into the shining light of what was real.

Yet I was trapped with only my thoughts to occupy me in a vain attempt to silence the horrid noises that it was alright that it was okay what I was doing that this is what I wanted…isn't it? I started to wander into a dreamland that was my distant memories to try to understand what it was I really wanted and why I was…this way. Why I both wanted to be trapped here and yet this stronger more base sensation of wanting desperately to live. By all accounts I had a normal childhood and birth, nothing complicated nothing too sad or note worthy. My father loved me, my mother loved me, and I was never abused in any shape or form but I had nobody to, as one might say, hang out with. I grew up friendless with only my mind and imagination to guide me. It started small with watching butterflies then loving how the mechanisms of their wings worked and how vibrant they were but instead of merely being content in watching from afar I wanted to get a closer look. Much closer.

So I waited and waited with endless patience until one fluttered onto me then I snatched it up and hurried to my room where I could watch it but doing so with my eyes was not enough so I asked for a microscope but by the time it arrived the butterfly had died. I didn't feel somber or put down but instead something sparked in me it was more anger with a mix of interest. How did it die? I just had to know and see. So the next butterfly came and went but this time I viewed it slowly suffer and run out of oxygen while trying to get a grip of just how those wings moved so gracefully.

I couldn't exactly wrap my head around it but it did excite me seeing it urgently flap those wings faster and faster and smash its body in a miserable attempt to escape. After a while I couldn't take my curiosity and as the saying goes curiosity killed the cat but in this case it wasn't a cat that would get killed… not yet. After twiddling my thumbs for what seemed an eternity I pinned the butterflies wings down and did my very first data filed test with statistics and pictures. And the rest was history.

Then came all the psychiatrists and psychologists and coated officials trying to determine just what was wrong with me and trying to come up with hilariously outlandish excuses for why I was this way even going to the length of separating me from my family. They soon found out how little that did to deter me when all the stray animals and squirrels suddenly turned up with their innards being their outtards.

They came up with more hypothesis until they threw me into the mental ward. Giving me playmates and toys only fueled my fire. Nothing stopped me and so they gave up and returned me to my parents but by then they wanted nothing to do with me. This was at a point where I had experimented with humans. They could not understand or accept me for who I was like decent, moralized, religious based, filthy little human beings who should try to work though it or live with it. I was the sick one though….

I have hobbies, I have goals, I have achievements. Any parent should be proud of my creativity and welcome me with open arms. Whatever the case…it didn't matter what I thought or even somewhere deep down what I might have felt. Nothing mattered but the knife and what I could do with it or the needle or the many other various sharp tools that were singing my name. My family lived in terror of me and I rarely saw them. I was finally able to move out and on my own and required an abandoned building far on the outskirts of civilization. There the rest of the people I knew did the same, they would try, they would fail, then they would fear. It's how it has always been. I got respected and feared for my power and for my inability to control what I could do with that power. Nobody came to my home nobody visited not even my family.

I've been secretly hoping they aren't dead and wondering if I can work with the coroner to examine them before they are long since ten feet under. I wonder too if they have replaced me with some perfectly perfect adorable little girl with pigtails. Pigtails…in my chasm of despair and irrationality I thought of Maka and her struggles to become something more. In this little space of emptiness and screeching sounds I also thought of Soul and his attempts to protect his friend. I thought of Black Star and his desire to overcome his inner weaknesses and Tsubaki and her efforts to be more outgoing. I thought of Death the Kid and his endeavors in living up to his father. I thought about them all.

I wondered if at that moment if I would and could attack them. If I could end their lives. I knew I could and would but was it because I wanted to or was I being controlled and told it was what I wanted to do? If I was not being puppeted by Asura and Medusa could I really kill the children I had strived so long to teach and took under my wing? For the longest time I lived on the very edge the very fringe of society or more so I was entirely disconnected from it but now I had people that truly were there for me and stood up for me…. And I had begun to miss them. I battled between what I always knew what was comfortable to me and what was foreign and wasn't sure of. Which was which? If I thought my fighting would be over soon and one part of me hushed, it only intensified when Lord Death brought in his greatest weapon against me….

**Her.**

She put a halt on everything I knew everything I thought I knew everything I held dear to me all went down because of her. Her name was Marie Mjoliner. A mighty machine of a woman who should not have collided with the likes of me but perhaps it was destiny that we met head on and that she be the catalyst to something inside of me alternating suddenly. I've never had an eye for women other than for possible applicants to be on the chopping block as it were and whether they were socially acceptable as attractive or not didn't matter too much. Women were never pretty to me nor any gender honestly. Just their skin arouses me and peeling it back like a piece of fruit to get to the seeded core. Long hair, short hair, makeup, African, Asian, weapon, meister, it didn't matter at all.

Just the screaming. Her though… at first, I didn't notice nor did I care but after she pulled me out of the terrible black static and moved in with me, I began to notice little by little that she wasn't like every other lady that had been operated on by me. It was slow, incredibly so, at first. Though how could I, a researcher, an innovator, a creator, a person that notices all things go about not noticing the small things she did for herself, for others, but especially for me? Marie would have been like every other person in my life; a blur of facial features and straining vocal chords that would sound much better panicking at the top of their lungs if she didn't get closer and closer with each passing second. It was if she was on a mission of her own accord to get me to see her and see her I did.

Now Marie was not someone new to me at all. A long time ago in my younger teen years she had taken affection with me or so I heard but she never did much about it. I always assumed it was because like everyone else she gave up after discovering the truth of what I truly would love more than I could ever her nor any person in any way. Even then the only thing I liked about her was because she liked me, oddly enough. It charms my murky whims that someone could be attracted to me without knowing anything about me. It was a rudimentary human thing yet again that them all curious, that both sexes are always in it for lust and blinded by physical perfections. Anyone could be something called pretty or even more so because that is subjective as are all things making it all complex so anyone can fall in love or lust with anyone and anything all the time.

Love itself and attraction is simple really and formulaic. It's all mostly physical and pheromones and chemicals in the brain. Then from there we decide to stay with that person forever or just make it a one night thing. Weddings and children and death follow suit. It never made much sense for me. To her I was just another guy that she thought was handsome in some way as I took notice that many men fell under her gaze and that she was attempting to get a male companion. I was just another charm on her bracelet. Nothing more. Now though, as an adult she still yearned for that same warmth of a human being to be taken out of her stupor and into something strong and supportive. She was childlike in that way almost requiring someone to take care of her. She could take care of herself in a lot of ways but there was emotional support that she craved.

Often I would wonder if anyone said I love You to her if she would flock to them, if it being this person or that or even…myself if it mattered at all as long as they were a guy and they were even the subtlest bit of nice or concerned. I could ask what she actually liked about the person and I was always confident that there would be no defining answer that would differentiate between someone like my partner from his father. Knowing this and knowing how desperate she was to get herself a life-long mate, seemingly only focused on that goal, should have made me even more disinterested than I already was in her. She lived with me sure but I could ignore her. However even as I attempted to tell myself that there was an irrational fear of her being around me because she couldn't live well alone.

She was always around me or talking to me, taking interest in whatever it was I was doing. She would ask how I was faring, ask what I was interested in, ask me to come with her to the store, and so on like that. She would brush her teeth next to me, make food for me or pack my lunch for work, she would help stitch my clothing which was something I could very well do myself but appreciated that artform in all honesty, and she would brew up a cup of coffee for me when I was have those late nights toiling away burning the midnight oil. I would sit there with the computer screen glowing, finger hooked onto the handle and feeling the heat of the cup, and wonder why she was doing all this. Her only job was to make sure I didn't lose my mind which was a laughable attempt but at the same time I felt she was making me lose my mind even more so. I sipped the coffee. It was good. I smiled.

She made this for me. I should say thank you, shouldn't I? When morning came I wanted to say that to her but I couldn't. Her hair was wet and hanging around her shoulder in a mess of curls, her eyes had dark bags under them, her lips slightly chapped, and her nails not yet painted. She smiled at me and said good morning and my first name. Not many said my first name not even Spirit. It dawned on me then when exactly I got that coffee was rather late in the night and on top of which I am almost sure she checked on me at various intervals. It had to be at least 1 or 2 a.m at least and it baffled me that someone who prided themselves on staying in shape and keeping herself looking nice would stay up all night and throw off her sleep schedule. No I knew. She did it for me. She did it to make me happy. I shook it off for a few seconds that she was taking another little fancy to me and being around me all the time only made it more so as there wasn't any other guys around. That was it right? I nodded to her and ate her food yet again. She watched me with this look on her face as if just me enjoying the meal was giving her some sort of pleasure. I finally told her thank you for the coffee and she did what she does best- she smiled.

"Anything for you, Frank."

"But why? Because you have to?"

"No Frank, because I want to. It's the little things in life that make me happy and I love helping out people. I thought, well if I was up all night I'd need something to get me going, right? So I made that for you. That's why I mend your coats and dust and clean your house, and why I do just about everything. I want to make life easy and good for you. I want to learn more about you. Don't be afraid of me, Frank, that's my job." She ended it with a wink meaning it was her job to be afraid of me.

She was also touching my stitched hand with a strange gentleness I wasn't accustomed to. From that moment on there were many moments of my utter interest in her. I watched her and every little motion she made, noticing her quirks and things that made her tick. She had orange blonde hair that coiled and kinked in ringlets, her singular staring eye, for the other was covered by a black patch of unknown origin, was a shiny gold brown hazel. Her lips were pink and pursed or sometimes with makeup a burgundy or red that looked very creamy and all too perfect as if she had hired an artisan to paint the curves of her mouth, her eyelash was long and curved framing that one eye, her face was oval to the point of precision but she had a little extra fat on her in her cheeks, hips, and other areas as most women do. She did nothing, at least to me, to hide her body shape.

Long and leggy as well as somewhat buxom and shapely but without being extreme. Her hands and feet were dainty. She had this odd habit of tapping her fingers on objects or more so her manicured polished finger nails or chewing on them which made her have to continuously do her nails over and over. She was an excellent seamstress, enjoyed cooking large lavish meals, fussed over everyone in a motherly fashion. She loved apple flavored anything, she brushed her pearly whites up and down methodically twenty five times, she could speak some German and Nordic fluently enough to teach children, she wanted a lot of kids in her future, she crinkled her nose a lot.

She could have a nasty temper on her period and asking questions about how that worked and functioned for her would get me the most vicious screaming I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, she loves all furry animals but most especially cute small legged dogs, as a child she always wanted to go to the fair, she couldn't sing worth her life but she sung a lot anyways, her favorite color was yellow, her favorite flowers were marigolds or buttercups. She and Azusa had been fast friends since six years old despite their differences, she had a bra size of exactly 38 CC, she couldn't stand a lot of odd sounds like cellophane crinkling or loud munching, and the list got bigger with each passing moment.

I didn't try to say I wasn't doing it on purpose or that I hadn't noticed a thing. She was kind, inhumanly so, sweet and loving to all especially children. She went out of her way to be a real people pleaser and would tell people to have a great day and she meant it. She smiled a lot. A lot. She would buy gifts for people, she made sure that my fridge was always stocked, she was over cautious of a lot of things to the point of being a trite superstitious. Yet she wasn't entirely just pure and holy she also was strong, extraordinarily so. She could take on the best of them by herself and needed no one to protect or save her if anything she did everything in her power to save everyone else and beat herself up about it if she couldn't do at least that. She was honest, she was raw, she was real.

She was nothing like most people and she never left me even when she was told to by numerous people. She stood by me no matter what and instead of being blind I found it was because she could see, see beyond me and see what I could be and what I was. There were many times I was sure she was scared of me beyond words but she didn't let the fear control her no matter what. I couldn't ignore her even if I tried to even if I wanted to. I didn't want to. It wasn't her high heels or low cut blouses or short skirts that caught my eyes it was something else that she hid even deeper than that.

I lit my cigarette as she put flowers in the once broken vase, carefully preening them with such a delicate touch that even seeing her fingers artfully curve around a petal was an unknown wonder without end. A spider crawled along the glass and I waited to see her reaction. She was mortified as most ladies are of any creature that crawls or slithers. However when I offered to exterminate with my usual brand of creepiness brandishing my favorited weapon of choice, she hurriedly grasped the creature, shock upon her pale face, and scurried to get it outside and away from me.

"Why did you do that? I thought you might want it dead since it scared you so bad."

"I don't kill things that scare me only things that threaten me or those I love. Its creepy but not worth it to kill the poor…helpless…if not a touch freaky creature. Besides, Franken, it has use after all. It spins neat little designs and traps the bugs that bother me and give diseases."

I must have over analyzed everything she said because I didn't take it like she was talking about just the spider here. Something might frighten her to the point of sheer revulsion but she doesn't run from what she fears or harm it. After all as the old saying goes don't judge a book by its cover and it's something she says too. I'm creepy, to say the very least, and it may very well be that my ways, habits, desires, fetishes, and oddities might make her want to turn tail but she doesn't because I have a use. I'm more than what is. I took a deep drag inwards the smoke dancing around the glowing hot red tip and curling out of my mouth.

She was a marvel, Miss Marie. She just had to get me involved in every activity she did. Sports, crafts, and sometimes dancing. The first time she did it I backed away and refused to do something so… not me. She implored. I gave in. It wasn't intimate or close it was just her trying to teach me how to do a simple move. I tried I failed. She laughed. I laughed with her. Instead I sat out and watched her dance. At any event I was pulled into with her I would talk and look around and find her instantly. A yellow bolt across a gray streak of sky. She bends to me now with a furrowed brow and takes the cigarette out of my mouth and snubs it out in the ashtray.

"Why did you-?"

"You always ask questions with simple answers. Come on now, you are a doctor you should know those things will kill you."

I knew that very well but I never stopped. It quelled me it was more than just a habit it was a way of life. If I was found smoking it means my insanity had reached its peak for most of the time anyways. Even now with her hovering over me I yearned to pull another out. She smacked my hand as it moved on its own accord to where I kept them. I must have pulled some sort of aggressive face toward her for a saw a flicker of something I was familiar with at last. Dare I keep up this face to make her feel that even more? Back her into a corner, unleash my true deep self?

"Frank…I can't have you dying. I've gotten used to your manic laughter and your oddball way of describing things, even your innocence towards things most people understand… don't leave me Frank… I don't want to be alone okay?"

She looked like she was about to cry. I shouldn't care and I never did. Humans crying only made me delight more if I was the cause of it. I reached my hand up and moved away her tears from her face. Her skin….so soft. I could feel her foundation and her heat and I could feel her warm tears trickle down and sting at some fresh scars on my hand. Why me? Why did she have to do all this for me? I'm not for her. I'm not for HER. I'm not for anyone. I have always imagined my life alone and enjoying that to the fullest doing as I damn well pleased until finally someone tried to lock me up or kill me that was the only way it could end on the end of someone else's dagger for once and the cruel irony of someone doing a lobotomy or autopsy.

I had always been alone. It felt natural. It was what I was used to. Nobody regarded me with anything but that everlasting horror of what I had done and could do. I smiled wickedly at everyone. Go away. Come close and I am liable to make you suffer. That's what I like. She smiled at me. Never leave me. Come close and I am liable to make you suffer. I was suffering because I wasn't sure of my identity anymore. Tears squeezed out from under her eyepatch and I moved to take it off but she stopped me and took it off herself letting me see her milky white eye. I stared at it more intently than I had anything in my life, flabbergasted and confused not because I had never seen or met anyone blind or half blind but because she showed me. She showed me her flaws, her own personal scars. It was beyond beautiful, not her eye though in itself it was lovely and slightly yellow, it was that rare openness one doesn't get from a cruel society that is harsher than anything I have done.

"My mom...was always too busy for me with her work..."

I examined her. "What _kind_ of work?"

"Selling herself…my mother was always trying to make ends meet you know. Always. She loved me to no end, I know that for sure without a doubt, but there was never any time for dollies and dress up. I only had my mind to escape to. I went to school and did well. She never paid attention to my new grades and hair styles and height changes. Her… consorts, never paid me much attention either and I was glad of that. It didn't last though. I'm sure you think I'm a bit of a floozy or a flirt… I don't mean to be I just don't know any other way. I'm not virtuous either… and that was because eventually they did notice me… after learning about what one of them did to me she spurned them.

"That's how I know she loved me. He was going to pay her money for me, a lot of it but she would rather be poor than see that happen. So he burned the house down. She got everything out… except me and by the time she realized I was still inside… well I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. She never forgave herself and suffered some level of ptsd. She doesn't even recognize me now. She always says 'no, you aren't my Marie, my Marie has two brown eyes.' Two brown eyes…. Yeah. She blocked it out entirely. She never did pay much attention to me so it's not like I wasn't used to it. I still had my friends and I still had the students. Then there's you. I lost her in some way and I couldn't pull her out of that hole… to lose someone again in that way…"

"Marie…"

What else could I say? What else could I offer to her? She spilled her guts to me in a more personal way than any incision could have and it was even more personal to me that she entrusted those secrets to me. She needed me more so than anyone I have ever come across. To fill a void, for a selfish need, to rectify what she had lost, to have something she could keep, whatever it was I don't think I cared anymore. We were so similar her and I. Abandoned by our parents, scarred by their failures, damaging ourselves in our own ways, going down a path that only led to our selfish little goals, and all the way feeling oh so very alone and somewhere in our pits screaming out for that loneliness to stop. I won't lie at some end I did think she was a bit of a flirt and more things that would have been entirely too rude to say out loud to a decent woman but as time passed I thought nothing of it.

Now I think everything of it. While I won't self diagnose and say what I do is a cry for help or attention at all it's just something I cannot help but do and there isn't anything I can do about it, it's also similar in a way. She went for me because she understood me, the true breath of me. She stopped the noise and eased my suffering. No she didn't create more. She soothed it away and replaced it with something unknown. Like a child I reacted to the new terribly, instead feigning it was all for my own doom. It's like being dragged to a new school and kicking all the way. For a while that was me refusing to accept all the fun times I could have there and instead seeing it as all negative even if it was not so. I would have continued on that way for eons.

In the darkness she showed me the light. "Don't leave me, Frank." How could I? I found myself pondering myself again. I wanted to be near her. Her infectious smile tore into my soul. She had me wrapped around her finger and I damn well knew it now. I could leave if I wanted and revert back to the old ways but my security blanket was no more. I really was acting the child. I pushed everyone away when it was a crucial point in my life and because it was something I was all too used to, I never gave it a bother. I had liked being alone, truly. If she left out the door Id find myself in the same position and utterly bored out of my mind. In the wee hours of the night I might reach out half expecting a cup of coffee to be there and coiling my hand back like a snake to find nothing.

I might wake up screaming in a cold sweat from intense night terrors and not find her in my door way with her calming waves washing over me telling me it will be alright and that she was here. I might have a hole in my coat pocket and have my utensils drop out only to sit there and stare at the hole knowing very well I could fix it but there was something about her stitches that were very different than mine. Knowing the thread had been in her hands, clipped off by her teeth, and pressed against her skin… it was just different. She took care of me. She nurtured me. I have never felt so relaxed near anyone. I hated it for the longest time or at least I felt some part of me would but it was natural. I could belong with people if they were willing to give me a chance.

"Don't smoke anymore…"

She couldn't even get the words out she was crying so much, crying because of me and though this time it was my fault, I got no pleasure from it. Nothing ventured nothing gained, I had to try not becoming normal she never tried to change who I was and even that was a revelation amongst in itself but instead try to be my own brand of normal without as much human life on my hands. I kept finding these special little people who were shaping me into something I was not a long time ago. A killer, a murderer, a psychopath, a lunatic. That's who I was and there was still essence of that throughout but for Marie… not for myself…I will change.

"What would happen if I couldn't stop? Would you leave?" My mind was pleading, say no say no. Stay with me.

"No never!" Sweet relief. "I would just be sad… I wouldn't give up on you but you would be giving up on yourself. You have a lot of potential, you are respected, admired, and people look up to you. We don't wanna see you go when you have so much to give. Your intelligence is astounding don't throw it away. I know you smoke to keep yourself in some sort of stability… or lack thereof but there are other things you could do. I've always liked to take walks outside… we could even walk together." I've never noticed until now how much she blushes around me...I like that too.

"What if nothing works? What if I… lose myself…?"

"Then I will do everything I can to save you from yourself. Asura and that…that whore, there I said it, will never touch you again. If they do then I will go down on the ship with you and we will push through it as a team. That's what we are right? A team? You and I forever. You and I till we can't. No matter what anyone lets you think there are a lot of us who think you aren't as bad as you seem."

"I kill..."

"You don't have to keep explaining as if telling me a thousand times will make me leave you. I don't give it a second thought. Unfortunately or fortunately you are stuck with me."

She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead, her cheeks a dash of salmon pink.

"Think about it for a while. I'm not asking cold turkey. Just lukewarm."

As she left, I stood there motionless for centuries it felt. Why on earth did she plant those plump little lips anywhere on me? Why did it feel just…right? I was shaking a little and reached for a cigarette and played with it in my hands. I'm unstable Marie, I could lash out at any second. It's not a warning for you it's for me. It's been a good millennia since I have been scared but I am. I don't want to hurt her…I really don't. I like this woman. She sparks emotions in me beyond the usual. I'm entertained with her around and happy but still free to perform in my lab as I wished. She took interest in my not so bloody experiments, it was interesting to her to watch my brain work and I could reciprocate that immensely.

She was scatter brained at times and yet organized, she was tidy and clean at least. She had a hell of a green thumb and was artsy too. She was also very bright even though some might think her a brainless blonde she has shown more than enough intelligence to hold her own. She can mcguiver all sorts of tools. She was bubbly, childish at times, energetic, and fun to say the least. She took my bland world once only decorated by reds and painted in more colors than I ever knew existed. Through her I was able to open up more to others. She laughed at my antics and pranks, she bought me books filled with scientific studies, she took me to museums, she amused me to no end, and through it all I thought that she does all this for me because it's what I want. What about what she wants? Clearly, she wants nothing more than to please others but what of herself?

What would be something that could make her happy? This was a first for me thinking about what would make someone happy instead of scared. Now I loved surprises and hoped that she would but I knew the things I was into she wasn't, not exactly. She liked to shop and make things, I could take her to a craft store. No, it had to be something memorable...something she always wanted to do. Ah. Got it. It took a couple days but when it was ready, I took her and covered her eyes all the way there and throughout it all she assumed I was going to do something of my usual caliber, but instead when she opened her eyes, or eye rather, she saw in front of her a big bright cheery carnival. She made a noise of sheer delight and jumped around happily like the proverbial kid in a candy shop.

"Oh Franky! You… you're the best! You remembered!"

"Of course." How could I forget? I remember everything about you.

She took my hand and rushed me to everything she had always wanted to do as a child. The bumper cars, the roller coasters, the over saturated food on a stick, the poorly put together rides meant to make you queasy, and all the other standard affair. She kept saying it was the best day ever over and over again. I didn't say much though I did cry with laughter in the haunted house it was cheesy and cheap but it made her jump around. I won some things for her and she fed me some of the food. It didn't embarrass me even when people would point at me and laugh or say something about the way I looked.

"Pay them no mind, Franky, people just have nothing better to do. There are people here that get paid to get pointed at and even that makes me mad."

"Why?"

"They aren't freaks they just have disabilities and should be treated like equals!" She said slamming her fork down on the table hard enough to cause a small ruckus. "I wouldn't dare allow them to do that to you. Ugh, it really grinds my gears!"

I snickered and turned the crank in my head as a gesture of some sort of comedy and she realized what she said and chortled too.

"You've got apple pie all over your face, Marie."

She looked down at the pie then at me and smiled in a way I've only seen on my own visage before throwing the pie at me

"Now it's on your face!" She happily cried and ran away obviously inviting me for a chase. She wore the type of shoes that slow a lady down and besides which I was just naturally a fast man to begin with. I caught her in no time, my arms around her waist and my face close to hers, both of us giddy with the laughter of two high school teens skipping school. She looked up at my shyly afterwards, realizing our situation but I didn't move and so we stayed there. I wasn't like other people, especially guys, so I saw nothing awkward about it at least too much. I stayed there because like everything with her it felt good. I wasn't used to physical contact and yet she was the one averting her face from mine with a flush of bright red. I knew this was how friends can hold each other sometimes, even siblings, but most commonly it was with lovers. What did I see myself as to her? She leaned back on me a little and sighed happily before looking up at the Ferris wheel.

"That would be the perfect way to end the day wouldn't it?"

She left my grasp and told me she would meet me there after using the restroom so I stood there and waited. It felt unusual not having her near me. She started taking a long time. I worried. It was nothing that was common of me before but it was something I had to get used to as time went on. As minutes passed, I began to lose my attention a little by watching a butterfly and reflected on how that began it all and then I realized. Marie was my butterfly. She was so beautiful and intricate, so delicate and different, that I yearned to get closer and see how she worked but it wasn't close enough. It was never enough. I wanted to know more and see more. I wanted to keep the butterfly close to me, keep it caged and then eventually my mind and insanity got the better of me and to assuage those wonders I opened it up to see what was inside. I could never cage Marie but I wanted to keep her there next to me for as long as I could.

As far as opening her up I did so metaphorically as by letting her tell me about her deepest self. At last she flittered back to me, her hair in the wind, a smile on her face. My butterfly. My Marie. I stopped myself. No she wasn't mine exactly. I didn't own her in any way in fact when this was all over, she would go back to Oceania and I… will be back in my little hovel with nothing to occupy me but my darkness yet again. I'd have the students as always and maybe they might visit but it wouldn't be the same. Once you've tasted the forbidden fruit it's hard to go back to plain normal peaches especially when a lot are rotten and worm filled. I noticed she got bumped into by someone who called her something under his breath. She didn't catch it or like always she brushed it off. But I heard him. I heard the bastard.

"Watch it Cyclops."

I told Marie to be a dear and wait there for me, I had to go do something important business. When she asked what I merely told her I had to get rid of some trash I couldn't help but grin to myself. It was all true… somewhat. An eye for an eye is what I told the poor soul before heading back to Marie, his optical seeing vessel located in my pocket creating a bloody stain. She didn't notice since my coats almost always had stains on them. She took my hand and laced it together with mine as we waited in line. That felt natural too. We weren't a couple but it just felt like it was the right choice. Her hand fit perfectly in mine. I looked at her again, bouncing on her heels with excitement as the ticketeer took our tickets. Would you hold my hand forever? You and I until the end. You and I until we can't. You could decorate my house as much as you like, paint it whatever color, cook whatever meals, sing as nosily as you want. Once you begged me to stay with you. Should I do the same? I held her hand tighter.

"Don't tell me you are scared now."

"I am but not of heights. I actually like being high up."

"Then what?"

"...Of losing you."

She looked at me as we entered the seats, analyzing me as I've always done with her. She leaned her head on my shoulder and laughed a little.

"Where did you get the idea that I would?"

"When the mission is over and-"

"Franken Woolstone Stein! You can be so idiotic sometimes! What kind of woman do you think I am? I'm not going anywhere."

"But you're stationed somewhere else you will have to leave at some point….and besides Asura will be defeated you know and..."

"This isn't about Asura or the mission. I'm staying with you because it's what I want." My heart felt like it shipped a beat. She wanted to...? "I can talk to Lord Death I'm sure Azusa would love to have my job she always wants more work."

"I'm not exactly the type of person you'd want to stay with any way…"

"I've survived this far." She was playing around with me, her little giggles were so sweet. Still...I must bitter this sweetness somehow.

"How much longer though and before you go interrupting me do you know what I really did when I left?"

I pulled out the eye ball from my pocket and showed her, looking into her eyes to see the truth behind them. Her own eye went round and she gasped sharply, though not as much as I expected.

"Frank you can't go around doing this! I thought you were-"

"That's the thing I don't know if I can get past it! He said something about you…"

"You did that… because of me? Should I take this as sign of insanity or a sign of love?"

"W…what?" This woman confused me so much. I wanted her to stay so she could confuse me more.

"Come on, Stein," she said this in a way that only made my heart beat faster, leaning close to me, pressing herself against me, eyes lidded and a suggestive smile, "any man who would go that length for a woman obviously loves her."

Love her? Me…? I didn't know I could even function that way. I mean all humans are basically all chemicals and nerves but I have never felt love for anything other than the usual little experimentation here and there but it wasn't romantic love. I'm not even sure if I actually even loved my parents or even myself. So how could I, one of the most inhuman people ever, even remotely feel love? Well what is love exactly, separating it from science? It's attraction based on physical and personality and attachment.

As the sunset hit her face, I knew she was beautiful and every waking moment I knew that from every corner and view she was stunning not just for her face but for what came next the personality, which was beyond glorious and just right for me, and then the attachment. I needed her beyond words. So did all this combined mean I loved her or was it merely I just needed someone there to talk to me and keep me sane- well as sane as can be? If that was the case then it could be anyone. It didn't matter who it was or was it because she stayed around so long, I convinced myself it HAD to be her. Wanting to stay with someone every waking moment could mean obsession and not love at all. Wanting to live my life with someone could mean love but in a number of degrees as some people live side by side with friends. Do I love her?

I remembered her milky opal eye staring at me show casing all the background I never knew, I remembered her crying, I think of that and I think of her tripping and laughing about it, I think of her neatness, I think of her in a way that's not like a subject I'm focusing on but as a woman. A woman with faults and benefits, pros and cons. Imagining this woman with me in my home, sprucing it up, and baking. I imagined her inviting over hordes of people for Christmas parties and events and galas. I imagined her dancing around in her sleep wear, I imagined her with her hair a curly mess and deprived of sleep. I imagined her dying her hair and hiding her age lines, I imagined her meticulously planning things. I imagined her gracing me with taking my last name, my heart, my soul, my being. I imagined her pushing around a stroller as she jogged down the lane chirping merrily at friends

It went on forever what it might be and as I thought about it, I thought about why I was thinking about it but before I could get all existential, she pressed her lips against mine and for the millionth time she silenced everything going on in my head. I couldn't even think straight at that moment my whole world seemed to spin. It's safe to say I've never had any romantic partner in my life so Ive never been kissed before. It was…new. As it happened my soul seemed to shoot out of me and grab onto hers. Were we connecting? Was this some form of soul connection I didn't know about? She began shivering and let go of my lips, tearing up.

"What was I thinking? If you can't love me-"

I cut her off. I jammed my lips hard against her own. Not just to stop her from continuing her self destructive thoughts but to get that feeling again. She made a noise of joy mixed with relief against my mouth before moving her own in a passionate lock. I followed suit in the way she did, weaving my fingers through her hair feeling it slither around my hands. I loved feeling her hair I loved it and I loved the smell of it, the color of it, and everything about her. Her mouth tasted like sugar and cinnamon and her. I didn't want to move from it at all.

Ever. I kissed her deeper, I wanted more of her and every little raw emotion she could give me. Her insecurities, her adoration, her humanity, her moral, her passions, her lust, her happiness, her confusion, her readiness, her potential, her. Her tongue went into my mouth and I gasped a little at the protrusion but I didn't stop her. I couldn't even if it disgusted me. I did the same to her. It was exciting! A new discovery! I licked every corner of her mouth, every tooth and cheek and her lips as well. I breathed her in without really letting her breathe.

"Frank." Kiss. "I." Kiss. "Love you." Kiss. "So." Kiss. So much."

I pulled her close to me wanting to mold our bodies together. I love her! By the scythe of Death I love her! I love her more than the waking laughing sun or the smiling shining moon. I love her without logic or rationality. Her for her. No one else. I didn't need anyone else not like this. To be without Marie is my real loss of sanity. That would be an undoable madness. Thank you to fate to destiny to chance for bringing us to this point. Whatever might have happened has been a step towards this. Honestly the cards were in the wrong place for us to even get here but they were mixed again and split in just the right way to reveal the lucky ace up the sleeve. She broke from the kiss and I leaned forward to kiss her again. I needed more. I wanted more. She pressed her finger to my mouth and seemed a little flustered.

"Why did you stop…?"

"I do need to breathe, sweetie. Besides… maybe you should apologize to that person you… de limbed."

"They should have thought before they said anything about you."

"'My woman'."

"What?"

She pulled her hands together near her heart and made a swoon. "It would be much more romantic if you said, 'they should have thought before they said anything about my woman'."

"My woman?"

"Yeah! I'm your woman now, right? Your way of expression is different than some so I took our kiss as an I love you and be mine. Am I right?"

"Yes. I'm not so good at words… or saying anything particularly romantic. I'm no poet or anything I'm a man of reason and science."

"As long as I get roses and not dead rodents on Valentine's Day I will be happy."

"I don't make any promises."

"Deal." She laughingly complied, kissing me on the cheek. "Only if you apologize. Vengeance is not right… unless it's a severe case then you can consider it."

"He's not going to forgive me. He might have even bled out and if he didn't, he called the cops most likely."

"Maybe if I apologized then? Explained things?"

"NO! No I don't want him laying eyes on y…on my woman…ever again. Besides… there's no explaining me in a way that would seem like a pass to an officer."

Calling her that, possessing over her by making her MY woman felt empowering. No one would harm her, I would use my own body as a shield if I must. As we got off the Ferris wheel, she kept making sure I would find them and apologize and the rest would come after. I knew it was not going to end well he might have back up or he might be dead which would bode badly for both of us. We found the miscreant easily enough and he continued to be appalling by throwing a slew of threats at us. He then called Marie, my Marie, something so awful I don't think I could even think it. It starts with a C he followed that with whore. Marie grew wild and gave me leave to kick his ass, her words not my own.

That word triggered unpleasant memories and for me it left a distasteful feeling all around me. I seethed with hate. They were all dealt with swiftly but not to worry there was no blood on our hands. Marie glared at their bruised shuddering bodies and kicked the one who called her such heinous words in the face. Her eye seemed dead and void-like. How she hated that word. How she hated the memories attached to it. How she hated those types of men. How I hated them too. She couldn't take a man that disrespected women in any sort of way. Explaining this to Lord Death proved to be helpful instead of damming. To some peoples dismay he did wave the charges of assault because they were thieves anyways, or at least he might have assumed so. He said he needed us on the field but considered this a strike. I had a long talk with him about how I was going to swear off of harming another innocent, albeit rude, human being again that I had no need to. I found something more to occupy my time.

Things passed as things do and time went on. Marie and I had countless journeys we went on and many battles we won together. My woman and I were a perfect match in strength and in cleverness. Never was there a dull day any more. Marie taught me how to do yoga and meditation, she showed me different types of plants to use as medicines, she showed me a world beyond the white walls and stitched solitude that had been my home. Hand in hand, side by side, we slashed through our enemies and enjoyed the company of a fellow companion. My past, soaked in blood and stained with the scent of terror, was washed away by her. Days spent in blissful harmony, nights spent in thoughtful contentment. Talking of our future together for hours on end while exploring the present. Over time everyone grew. Maka became more confident, Soul accepted who he truly was, Black Star became humbler, Tsubaki spoke her mind, Death the Kid lost interest in symmetry(for the most part), Liz started to become a little less street and a little more classy, Patty was still Patty though and that was for the best.

Broken friendships were being mended and bonds were being made but my own was one too special and above the rest to even think about the others any other way. I was a changed man though not entirely but enough for people to notice. Those who had once turned away from me now wanted to be near me and I was all around more accepted. I became more social and took up sports to keep myself active and occupied. I helped out a lot more. I became interested in other hobbies. I had a life now… with her. The black lonely endless times were gone and the overcoming madness that took my life was now replaced with overcoming brightness. I had something more to look forward to besides who I was going to cut open next . Nothing in the world could make anything better than this. Then one day, with Crona still on the moon, something sporadic and unusual happened.

It was in the middle of the night and for no reason at all I couldn't stop looking at Marie's body. I've never much gave it too much mind. It wasn't important to me honestly. She was lovely from top to toe without a shadow of a doubt but I've never thought of her body as a huge reason as to why I decided to make her my woman. It might just be the same to her. Although, to be fair I've been very careful in almost avoiding seeing her undressed. I've seen her in her under clothes and barely clothed but every time the opportunity comes up to see her naked, I almost make sure it doesn't. I don't want to upset her…at all. I want her to be comfortable and let me know when it's okay for her not when it's okay for me because it's always okay for me. I don't mind it but I know what she has been through and I don't want to impose. I know we haven't…copulated. Not even once. The mention of it hasn't even come up not really.

She flaunts around her body sometimes but I'm not so dense I don't notice, it just was never something I was after. However it is a natural thing, isn't it? Couples couple. It's just an animalistic urge but it's not something I've felt at all not even around her. Kissing her gives me the inkling of it and she kisses me on the neck and cheek and that raises my temperature and excites me but it never goes farther than that. So why haven't we? Because I want her to ask or tell me it's okay and then we can…mate. I wasn't even sure how that would even go I've never done it and I've only seen it. It's confusing and doesn't seem arousing at all really. Sloppy, messy, and noisy to be honest. People just do it to do it, that's what It seems like. It was nothing I really wanted to do or needed to do. I felt no arousal or at least to something like that but for no reason at all I couldn't stop staring at her body and wanting to touch it.

Not just her body but her chest specifically. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't tear my eyes away from the way they bounced as she moved. I never really seemed to notice how they moved around that way it was utterly… captivating. I know very well her skin is soft so those would probably would also be soft as well of course. I wanted so much to touch and grab them that it was like a magnetic pull I could not stop myself at all. I was telling myself no and that it was wrong to just grope her without any permission at all but there was a force unknown moving me toward her and then without a second to spare my hands were grasped onto one of her round soft bosoms. My eyes widened in horror knowing this could either end two ways; either she got infuriated or depressed. Her cheeks turned red but instead of slapping me or crying she belted out in a laugh. I know I looked stunned. Was she losing her mind? I hoped so. There was no other way to rationalize any of this.

"Oh Death! It's about time! I thought you were going to make me wait forever!"

I couldn't even get a word out at all. How was I supposed to react to that? I could only stutter in shame even though I wanted to get a firm grip on my tongue. She smiled a big smile at me full of warmth and took the sides of my head and kissed me with all the love in her. That was it. None of what she said mattered. All that mattered were her lips and her hand urging me, insisting that I continue to touch her breast. Whatever she wanted I would give her. It didn't matter at all. If she wanted me to touch her a certain way I would do it, if she wanted me to touch her in a certain place I would do it. She kissed me with more gusto moving from my mouth to my cheek to my neck and up from my neck to my ear where she whispered my name against it. I trembled against her. I don't even know how to explain what that did to me, just her tone and my name and her voice…death.

"S-something you w-want?"

"Isn't that obvious? I mean for both of us anyways. You came onto me and I'm glad you did. You don't know how much I've been wanting you, Franky. Ever since that kiss on the Ferris wheel I've been waiting forever for you to make a move. You're an intelligent man so I thought you could read all my signs. It wouldn't be very lady like for me to go first… even though it is ladies first but I wanted you to be a man, you know. Take me in your arms and I don't know…ravish me, kiss me like there's no tomorrow, tell me you need me right now then toss me onto the bed! …something like that."

I listened intently to everything she was saying and soaked it all in. Her parading about and acting strangely like she was pretending to be innocent as her towel dropped or when she walked into the room trying to find a missing piece of clothing was her actually trying her damdest to get my attention? I had thought as much but I needed verbal confrontation since she was always somewhat flirty, it was just her nature. She had been wanting us to take the next step but instead of telling me bluntly she thought of giving me signs she had been hoping I'd make the decision myself. It was a weird run around between who would do it first for various reasons. If it weren't for this strange sensation in me. I might have never even tried it but she most likely would have given in and done something rather drastic.

If she wanted me to be more persuasive and dominating, I could do that but wouldn't that mean also being a little more aggressive? It wasn't as if I wasn't used to doing that but her wave length that caressed my own and our life style had gotten me into the mindset that even though I could be me that there was no need for senseless violence and entirely going out of my head. It wasn't in me, even then, to just grab her and do as she says. I'm not a man that acts on that kind of impulse system as there was always a method to my madness. Other than that I've said it multiple times that it wasn't something I craved or knew how to initiate. I am always left in this state of awkward pause because of being so anti-social and distanced I wasn't sure how to act around people other than being eerie or kooky. I could be that way around her but I was also her beloved and so there was that too. Deep discussion, debates, and stories were what came out of our mouths and just the general chit chat of the day to day. Listening to her and her listening to me or just simply being near her was more than enough.

As far as simply, as she put it, ravishing her… looking at her now and the way she was blushing and looking at me maybe it was something I could manage but is that what she really wanted? Is that what women like in a guy? Does being a man mean taking charge and acting a little controlling and primal? I'm not so sure that's me and I'm not sure if I see this exactly right. As usual I might be thinking too hard on it. Should I just act on my own urges? The thing was I didn't have any until this night but touching her there was a surprising treat and it wasn't just this bizarre pulling sensation keeping my hand there though it was most certainly telling me to do more with it than just touch. Without thought I probably was doing more with it and didn't even realize because she made a squeaking noise, like she saw a small creature or something. I realized then I had squeezed her just there and looked up at her with worry.

"Sorry I-!"

"No, Frank… you don't have to apologize, dear."

She was reddening all over her face and using a manner of voice that was something different but it was something that utterly hypnotized me. I have heard it before and even a few moments ago I heard it but she rarely used it. She sounded like she was in heat. She wanted more. There was longing in ever vocal cord and I wanted to feed it. She took my hands again and started leading me away down a familiar path to my bedroom which had become our bedroom. I cannot describe how wonderful it felt to have her next to me on my many insomniac sleepless nights to wake up and see her sleeping there with a look of peace upon her sleeping face. It always put me at ease and if I ever felt jittery and in need of a smoke, I would wake her instead and no matter how long it took she would stay up for my sake.

I don't even know how to thank her for all that she has done for me, it's nearly impossible to even start or fathom what to do. I can make her laugh, I can make her smile, I can try my very best to make up gifts to give her but I dare not consult my other male cohorts for answers. I want it to be something entirely of my own design. My company seems enough for her although she still likes the voodoo doll I made for her as a means of some stress relief. We were in the room and she plopped me on the bed and closed the door before looking over at me with a look I couldn't place if I truly didn't know any better. It was raw seduction and made my skin flare up with heat. I swallowed hard and my breath shifted.

"I know you are nervous, my love, and I know in some way you might even be shy. You don't need to be. I'm yours, every part of me is yours. If you need help don't feel ashamed to ask."

She was taking off her clothes and this time I didn't dare tear my eyes away nor did I care about where they landed at all. I felt just a little bit of shame that I needed to be guided on what to do to make her pleased in this way but it wasn't something I knew and if I tried to learn by example it might not end so well. I wanted to do whatever made her feel good, whatever it was I would do it but I must also act on whatever it is I wanted. What did I want other than to please her without fail? As her bra popped off and slowly moved away from her form, I knew then the sensation inside of me was not just this abnormal oddity drawing me to her it was something inside of me. Something distinctly male and human and certainly primordial. I did want to touch but not at the strength I was being told to by whatever breed of madness had taken over me but because it was my Marie, my woman, my beloved, my lover, my only exposing her secret body to me and for my viewing eyes only.

When she was entirely bare and I felt entirely without breath inside of me she allowed me to view her body for a while before running past me and landing on the bed, all her particularly lovely parts bouncing along with her and her hair flying around to land across the pillow. I knew my mouth was hanging open looking at her all undressed on my bed. An endless mystery- women and a certain source of many amazements. Marie looked, how do I put this, absolutely without a single doubt in my mind completely would the word be- edible? She was like a well-placed dessert in front of a starving patron at a restaurant who hungered for more after simply wafting it and though I was not the person for sweets this lady whom I call my very own looked like I could just devour her whole. Every part of her was gloriously gorgeous in that form and at the same time it looked hot to touch. It was illicit and sensual, it was exceptional and irregular. She let me see this, she allowed me to see her as a woman. Eyepatch off, hair wild, body exposed. I should make her feel more like a woman and I should feel more like I man. I would have gladly touched her, it seemed I had permission to do so but she propped her foot against my chest with a teasing lurk and a naughty chime to everything she said. Mischievous thing.

"Ah ah ah. We have to be equal here, don't we Doc? You should undress too."

She calls me Doc as some form of pet name every now and then just as she calls me sweetie, darling, dearest, dear, honey, and sometimes she might throw in something Finnish or German. Hearing her talk in another language was an exoticism all its own. Though now that name, even it one might find it a trifle childish, brought on new meaning through her pitch. I didn't have too many names I could call her and I was nowhere near proficient in laymen of the bedroom. However if she wanted me to undress for her then but of course I would gladly do so. Had to do it at some point anyways. I should feel some level of gracelessness because I had never really been entirely unclothed in front of anyone but especially someone of the opposite sex but it felt like nothing to me. Truly it did and it wasn't because I was confident or anything, I just was a 36 year old man, older than her, who lived outside of the outskirts of civilization with very little thought on what to do or how to act properly.

In another time in another life I would have been stammering and red faced all over hoping to be accepted and that the lady might like what she saw. I knew Marie would like my form no matter what because she didn't love me for that. That being said when all was said and done and I stood before her, watching her examine me I wondered what exactly was in her mind. Did, for a moment, she let herself be governed by the convention of what was physically attractive or not? She beckoned me closer with the curl of her finger and like a dog I obeyed. I had been dying to get near her since she laid down. I just… wanted her, entirely. Our nude bodies pressed together and that's when the fire ignited in the bottom of my stomach and burned throughout me. It was electrifying ! Her skin, that secretive part of her skin, touching parts of mine never touched. There were no words. None. Delight, sheer dizzying delight. Her nipples brushed against me and I groaned with want. Her mouth claimed mine, her hands grabbing me, yanking me close to her. My fiery woman! My vixen of a woman! My phoenix of a woman! My passion bursting, love filled, magnificent, superb, astounding, enticing, engaging, stimulating, beautiful woman! Erotic woman. Arousing woman. Sensual woman. Seductive woman. My woman.

She moved from my lips to caress the very tip of her finger across the scar along my face then following it down the other scars of my neck and arm and chest. Glory be Death on high how she unravels me so. I never knew just how erogenous it could be just to be touched by her in such a simple way. She was putting a spell on me, must be. I could explain it all scientifically but for now I threw that out the window and let my drives push me, let what made me a person make me more sufficient in this environment. A flicker of sadness met her eyes as she traced each scar knowing full well they were all self-inflicted. My tender Marie, so compassionate and considerate, so empathetic and noble. I have done nothing to deserve you. I have done nothing to deserve any of this. Yet you stay. Yet you love me. Yet you are mine.

She moved my head to her neck. She didn't have to I wanted nothing more than to disperse kisses all over that said area. Her neck was smooth and just right. Everything on her was. I open mouth kissed all over her feeling her breathing hitch and change multiple times as my teeth would accidently scrape against her flesh. Her skin began to get goose bumps and I could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up. So I bit her just a little though not sure why but it felt grand. She urged me to do more if I so pleased. I very much was inclined. She laid down and allowed me to give her marks all over her neck and shoulders until she told me that it was more than okay if I touch or do more so to the rest of her. How callous of me to leave her unattended.

Touch her she wanted, touch her I will. I looked up briefly at the marks I made, I had sucked just enough to create what looked like little purple-red hives on her. They wouldn't be permanent which is a good thing because I would like to do more in the future. My hands moved downward onto those bare breasts, their dark rose tinted tops perked up with obvious enthusiasm. I gave them a squeeze causing a sharp gasp and moved my hands across those hardened peaks causing even more movement and sound. She was rather sensitive here. What should I do to please her more? I laid my lips upon them kissing them all over. I wasn't sure exactly what to do. I knew how to do what I must but as far as what's commonly called foreplay I was in the dark for the most part. She offered up something to me as a suggestion, to taste her. I raised my eyebrow and moved my tongue across her breast. She hissed inwardly with pleasure. That was it. It was another new discovery. I continued stimulating her there but specifically across her nipple, that's where she liked it best.

They hardened even more so to the touch of my tongue. On nothing but some sort of instinct I began to gingerly squeeze her nipples between my fingers eliciting a splendid response. More, she begged, it feels good, she said with that voice that voice which made me feel hotter than a flame. Say it again, speak like that again, never stop talking, never stop making those sounds. I continued to fondle her, trying different ways to get her to enjoy it more. I wanted more of her though so with some regret I moved down ward with my mouth kissing and licking everywhere I came across. I could feel her getting hotter, I could smell her thrill. Every bit of her skin was just as delicious as I thought. I couldn't be bothered to stop caressing it or giving it affection. She started to open her legs as I got lower and with each little inch that I got lower they seemed to open more as if expecting something. I knew what she wanted, at least I guess I did.

She offered for me to touch and taste everywhere. Even somewhere as private as there. I was elated that she allowed me to do something so, should I say obscene? She was a treasure amongst treasures, the light of my life. I propped her legs up if only a little and stared at her woman hood. It was neatly trimmed and looked almost strange and yet so peculiarly divine. I took my fingers and spread it open, looking upon it with more interest than before. It was so pink, pungent, and wet. Her nectar clung onto every little fold and dripped from her. For a while I was fixated upon her wide open lady hood and throbbing clitoris. It was stimulating and titillating, it was hers and it was mine. She broke me out of concentration by shyly stuttering,

"D-d-don't just stare at it all day…"

"It's just I've never seen one up close before."

I know that wasn't the right thing to say and it portrayed me as an innocent child I'm sure. I didn't want to come off that way or ruin anything so quickly I moved my tongue against it and from that moment on I truly think I might have lost my mind for the noise that tore out of her was so phantasmagorical that I didn't believe it could have come from her at all but I didn't stop to ask questions. No. I kept going. I tasted every fold, every little bit of her that I could indulging in her unique taste that came from the juices that flowed from her. It wasn't sweet or bitter, there was no easy way to describe it but it was decadent and it was something I craved.

I craved every part of her body and tasting and touching it all was more than a pleasure to me. I hungered, nay, starved for her. Not just her but those damning sounds she made combined with my name. Never before did my name sound so heady and lascivious. It drove me mad. Simply mad. I just wanted to hear her over and over again. Like a broken record in my head. When I sucked on her just there her hips moved on their own accord so I planted them down to keep her steady. I wanted to please her thoroughly in any way shape or form.

Watching her facial movements was something else I absolutely loved. She was very much enjoying this and I could say it was double for me. I was addicted to her and the way she moaned and screamed and gasped and hissed and lord any noise she made got me going. Her hands grasped a hold of my hair as some way to root her further to the earth but also as a way to tell me to continue digging right in. Like I needed to be told. I had no sense of stopping. I wanted to make Marie feel so good that she couldn't stand it anymore, until her voice gave out and all that was left was a whisper of my name as I continued on forth with giving her ever erogenous sinful little pleasure known to man. Her body started to convulse and between heavy breaths she said she was going to orgasm. So I watched her face as my mouth all but demolished her but after she released, I dare not stop even after she begged me to. Just a little longer I wanted to draw it out.

"I c… can't take it...s-stop!"

"Does it hurt?" I murmured, my face still her between her heavenly legs and even more heavenly sticky pale pink labia.

"N...no.."

"Then why should I stop?"

She couldn't well answer me because I didn't well let her in all honesty. I wanted to drag out her orgasm as far as I could without torturing the poor dear. She was nearly squealing, her voice high pitched and nearly gone like someone was choking her. I loved that more than anything. I wouldn't deny her though so I had to force myself away from there to kiss up her thighs soaked with her wetness, up to her legs and then to her stomach lest I find myself going at her again. I told her how good she tasted and how I loved how she convulsed in my hands and how if I didn't stop myself, I would have gone on for an eternity, and that was with anything that gave her such satisfaction. I gave her a deep kiss, toying more with her breast to get her all fired up again. I never wanted any of this to end.

Any part of it. I could look in her eyes and see she felt the same. I looked at her and let her stroke my chest and arms in a loving fashion. I didn't want to hurt her not in any way that wouldn't make her feel good at least. I only wanted to give her whatever it is she needed or wanted since she had done more than enough giving for me. I was more than ready to give her my all, to combine with her and share that final connection that had separated us for a long time. I had made her wait when she had wanted it and I would do her wrong to make her wait longer than that but at the same time I needed-

"Make love to me. I want to be whole with you. I'm all yours, forever and ever. Us until the end."

I closed my eyes and leaned against her forehead, smiling softly at her as I slowly edged myself closer to her, parting her legs once more. "Us until we can't. if I drown into madness now…"

"I'll follow you."

So I pushed my length into her warm velvet core that welcomed me humbly. I put every inch of it inside to the hilt and felt then and there that I truly could not breathe. Yet as I couldn't breathe, I let out a groan. It was… fantastic! It was lewd and carnal. I needed no heads up for movement I just moved because I needed to and wanted to, finally acting on the urges I swore I never had. I let out a guttural grunt as I pushed out and she purred out an oh too erogenous moan. For the love of all that was benevolent what a feeling! My mind could not even think at that moment there was nothing there except two things: make love to Marie and never stop. Good was an understatement, marvelous or stupendous would be a joke. I can't fathom a word to describe it other than perhaps euphoric. I lost myself in those thrusting movements and sank into the moaning, screaming, begging, groaning, sighing.

I've never heard such sounds out of her and I never wanted to hear anything else. It seemed a faraway time ago that I got a sick kick out of hearing people scream and now it was that I had even more arousal from hearing screams out of her. She would tell me to go faster, deeper, harder and I didn't need to be told twice I was doing that and then some because of how I felt but what an erotic thing to say to me. Everything about her now and everything about how she spoke was more impassioned and naughty. She was my aphrodisiac. When she raised her hips, when she wrapped her legs around mine, when she told me repeatedly how good it felt only ensuring I give her more, when she pleaded, when she kissed me out of her craved passions, when she mumbled against my lips incoherently, when she moved against me, when she would most likely on accident put her nails into me, when she cursed it all drove me up the damned wall. I lost it entirely and there was no coming back. This was lunacy beyond lunacy into the realm of something new. A lunacy we both liked and urged to continue. I manically ravished her as she so asked of me to do earlier, holding tight to her well-rounded hips. I pounded into her with great force and speed, gritting my teeth hard as I consumed her being.

"D…darling… not so …rough."

But I couldn't help myself not could I stop myself even if I wanted to. It just felt so… satisfying and unbelievably incredible. How could I stop? How could I not want to give her everything I had? I would most likely have to apologize later for being so frenzied but for right now I was down a path and losing my way. Whirling, swirling faster out of my brain into a hazy place of steaming sweaty meshing bodies and one of them being oh so very lovely and sounding oh so very lovely. Her walls expanded with my size but still clung to my length enough to create friction and as I moved inside of her I nipped, I licked, and sucked the rest of her that I could causing a higher level of arousal. Despite me acting a little savage she still loved it just as much as I did. She screamed my name as I gave her more and more and this time instead of chiding me for my roughness, she told me not to stop. Like there was any way I was going to anyways. She said those words which snared me those words which seemed so rudimentary back when I knew no better.

"I love you! I love you! I love you!"

I held her as close as I could and she did the same for me, continuing my penetrative assault, and looked at her. Where would I be without her? What would my life be without her? Empty and meaningless for the most part. She saw meaning in it though. She gave me hope and life. She gave me reason. Marie was something that most likely wasn't supposed to happen but needed to happen. I might have stayed forever clueless, insecure, and incomplete. I might have destroyed many lives of people who cared and didn't deserve it. I might have joined the side against what was right merely because my concept of right and wrong was muddled. I might have turned Kishin. I might have truly been lost for all time without any recovery and to the point where even she might not have been able to drag me out.

I might have ended up ending myself out of the tiniest fraction of mortal in me wanting to silence the noise insanity could cause. Nobody would come to my funeral I wouldn't even have one. I'd be forgotten only talked about in legends that scare young children into going to bed early. Marie saved me, she saved my life and my soul just by being there. In all thought there was no one more matched than someone who wasn't exactly like me. People thought we were the odd couple but it only made all the more sense. If you have 0 and add it to 0 you are still left with 0 and if you multiply 0 with a number no matter how important or large it doesn't do anything. If you take that 0 and add something different to it then suddenly it becomes more. That's how it was with her and as they say opposites attract. She completed me she filled in the missing pieces and gaps in my soul, in my life, in my heart that I never had noticed before.

On top of that I had friends who were also there for me as well. I have even reached out to try to mend the broken bond with my family and with hope they will accept me even after all that has been done but if they don't or if the whole world falls to ruin, I know I can always depend on her to make things right. I need her and she needs me. I love her, oh my death do I love her! My heart feels full to burst with how much love is inside of it. I became the experiment and at the end of many tests and trials I was finally given a prescription that worked for me, a drug which I could refill at any times and the side effects only boosted me higher. Its name was Marie. Marie didn't care I had scars all over my body, Marie didn't care that I liked to do things abnormally, Marie didn't care that I overcomplicated things with my words, Marie didn't care that I didn't know how to talk a certain way or that I wasn't average, Marie didn't care about a lot of things but she for certain cared about me.

Having her fuss over me and kiss on me and entertain me wasn't something I thought I could ever understand or cope with but it was second nature to me. It was pleasant, refreshing, and enjoyable. Kissing her back became like breathing, it was something I did and something I required to survive the day. She could leave and go places and indeed she sometimes would to go with her own friends and do whatever it is ladies do or shop for things or do something secretive I wasn't supposed to see that would be revealed as a gift. I would spend my time playing around with things in the house, taking apart the clock and putting it back together, studying anatomy, fiddling with things, watching television, reading, cleaning up my wounds, and doing the occasional research on whatever pleased me but it was just a notch unbearable not having her around.

Sometimes I thought she might never come back at all and that she found someone else, someone more stable and sane, someone more normal. There was the other alternative that though she was dependable, reliable, and capable of holding her own and was with people who were just as plucky and just as courageous she might have ended up getting hurt or worse than that…It was something I dreaded the thought of but it always cropped up. My one saving grace gone from my life… it would be the end of me and the end of all things. My entire world would go blank because she was my world. In times like that I would want to call her just to check and at times like that I would look at pictures of her and sigh longingly, and at times like that I might wait at the front door listening for a jingling of keys and a clack of heels.

She never got home too late but if it was an hour past what was expected I might panic if but a little. I would try to stay calm and remember she can best any person who came across her. My Marie was one dangerous opponent. If she needed help, I would know immediately and I would be there faster than the eye could see. Of course as always before I could even assume the worst and head on over to wherever she may be is when she decided to come home all grins and hugs. I'd embrace her tightly, nuzzling my face into her neck and grateful she returned unharmed. How could I have lived my life without this sunshine of mine? It was a wonder amongst wonders. I couldn't fathom finding another Marie or cheating on her. It was beyond me. There was only one Marie and she was mine. The pill that made my nightmares go to sleep, the lullaby that sent me into a dream.

Marie quilted herself onto my already mismatched quilt of life and she was the proudest stitch I would ever own. We were unified, she and I, sewn to each other forever more. There's nothing in the world that gives me a greater joy yes even dissection pales in comparison to having her be my woman and even more so to making her feel more like one as I straddle her and grind inside of her with a senseless nature that might have been more belligerent than I needed it to be. I didn't want to hurt her unless she liked it and though at some points she piped out too hard or too deep, she still let my entire house echo with that angelic choir that was her moans of sexual delight. I heard her and I should have paid attention just in case I do end up making it hurt but I had vanished into a realm not of this one. I was conscious and there yet I was not. Feeling her contract and massage my length left me woozy and shaking. I could feel and hear her heart beating no thumping hard with each jolt inside of her as if it was unison. I was keeping tempo with her for my own heart was beating just the same. She looked at me, almost desperately It seemed and said something that almost made me stop.

"S-say it back… please honey say it back."

My death… have I never once told her I love her? Have I never once actually said the words? While I was not a person of silence and usually voiced my opinions, I was also a stand offish person who kept to themselves and his hobbies. I felt like a horrible person if I never actually voiced such an important thing. It wasn't true, was it? Had I never said I love you to her? No it wasn't that it was that I barely ever said it the phrase the feeling the saying itself made me nervous and was strange. I was beyond cruel for neglecting something so special as our love. Me not saying it enough or any man not saying it enough was reason to drive their lady love away to someone who might. They might get crazed ideas of affairs and all manner of things that would spiral out of control. I couldn't have that. I closed some space between us, if there was any to close, and looked her dead center into her pupils as I continued rendering her womanly interior helpless and spoke the words I felt I needed to say more even if it stung, even it felt it wasn't like me to say it. I had to.

"I love you Marie! I love you Marie Aesir Mjoliner! I love you without condition! I love you with no end! I love you so much!"

"Oh honey..ohh ohh….Oh…g..gods of hallah that feels…ahhh….!"

I smiled in spite of myself though it might have been more of a leer. I watched her facial expressions even though me looking directly at her seemed to make her shy.

"Don't look away from me… ever."

"I I…it's just….i…ahhh… y-you're so a ah ahhh a-attractive…"

"I am?"

"Y…yes…! Ah Frank Frank….f...fuck!"

I grinned again, showing my teeth, a zap of pure animalist lust shone in my eyes but at the same time my heart warmed. Marie would tell me I might look good, even dashing sometimes even if my hair was a touch messy and too gray to tell what age I was but she fully admitted to liking the way I looked. That was nice. I don't get many compliments especially on my appearance. I gripped her chin and made her look at me as I could sense her orgasm coming in fast for her breathing was so labored and quick. From the build up inside of me I felt like I was ready to release just as soon. There was no better way to do it than together as one. I realized then that people, at least those that truly love each other, don't just have intercourse for the sake of it though the pleasure is… absurdly divine but for the connection one felt when combining together with their chosen life partner.

It felt so good because of the friction of course but knowing it made her feel good and just being with her combined with the fact that it was me and only me that could give this to her made it 10 times more pleasing. She gasped hard before orgasming even harder, her walls tightening to the nth degree as her juices flowed out and I orgasmed with her, releasing my seed inside of her aching cavern. We both had made noises loud enough to likely shatter something, screaming each other's names exuberantly. I was not done with her yet. I pinned down her arms as I once pinned down the wings of the butterfly and continued giving it to her, loving her as only I can love her- without limits, without sanity.

"Fr…d…don't… I can't …can't…handle…I'll…go go…c-crazy!"

I placed my lips next to her ear and snickered a bit darkly before purring,

"That's exactly what I want, sweetheart."

She didn't say anything next that wasn't some type of unintelligible swear or noise that almost sounded like distress because of the pitch of it. It was like a squeak or a squeal to the point of being more like a whistle. Eventually I think her voice just went away and was replaced with breaths that mimicked voices. She pleaded for me to stop, frantic and burning and spent and still very raw from what I had already done but I couldn't just let my little test go. I held down my experiment and made her squirm, loving the sounds of our skin colliding and the sloshing of her wet womanhood as I devastated what was left of it. The sadist part of me came through, adoring the sweet torture of it all. I kept going and going until she surrendered and gave into it. Let me bury inside of you, my host, let me live inside of you, let me infect you, let me inject you with my spirit.

I tried pushing my wavelength out with each movement and it worked. I was certain that then and there we had a true soul resonance as she climaxed several times, our souls joining in harmony. I captured her lips as I spilled myself inside of her once more letting her scream silently into my mouth and I into hers. This is me, Marie, take all that I am and all that I will be, take all that I was and all that I wasn't. Then I did it again. And again. And once more for good measure ignoring all pleas and cries for me to halt my overbearing animal like it was over and I finally released her, relishing in the glow of what just transpired. She lay next to me panting hard, seeming in a daze as she kept checking her pulse and forehead for a temperature. Eventually she flopped her sweat glistened body onto mine, sounding beyond exhausted.

"Y...you…you animal…"

I chuckled at her as I stroked over her face before delivering deep kiss after deep kiss.

"Did you enjoy being my prey?" I quipped with a quirked brow. She nodded simply, laying against me.

"I won't ever forget today, ever ever. I just don't want to have to wait around until the next time it happens."

"Oh you won't have to. I can promise you that. Are you getting to be tired?"

"Well you drained me, honey. I don't know if I will be able to walk properly tomorrow."

"That's just fine…means you can't escape me if I want to do it again."

"You're insatiable!"

"And insane, let's not forget that dear."

"Yes… and insane…and mine… and perfect."

Then she drifted off into sleep. I wasn't the type to go to sleep early and instead let my mind wander. I had started out as someone doomed to live a life with sullied hands and now, I had something to live for. I finally thought of the perfect way to thank her. It took a lot of convincing but I knew no other way to do this. I asked her to watch me dissect a frog, something so simple a child could do it and I told her it was for a science class and she believed me. Sometimes she believes in people too much but I've always liked that she can do that. When I opened up the frog in front of her queasy eyes, she soon turned from green to white to red. Inside of it was a shiny silver ring that had cost me little to nothing but meant everything to her. I didn't need to ask or get on one knee it was clear she knew. She told me it was romantic, the most romantic thing she could ever think of and accepted. She accepted! I had paced around for days and days thinking she would never accept my proposal especially one so outlandish as this but Marie loved me and leapt into my arms then we celebrated that happiness by making love for the remainder of the night.

We didn't tell anybody, not yet we wanted it to be a surprise and there were other matters at hand. I pondered it again. I was going to have a wife. A wife… me! Mrs. Stein. It was the most unflawed name in the world. My woman… my soon to be wife… the light in the darkness… the person who quieted my fears. You pulled me into your arms and out of the spinning whirlwind of disaster that could have continued on for an eternity. Instead now I have an eternity with you. My life was filled with wonder and surprises and to add to that something else happened. Marie got a letter addressed from someone whose name only I knew, Shelly and Percy Stein. My parents. She read it out loud to me;

_Dear Marie,_

_We thought long and hard about what to say to our son for the longest time. Apologies never seemed enough. We thought we had done something wrong in our lives and I'm sure we did. We spurned him we denied him and we failed as parents for it. We would be lying if we said we weren't frightened of him and for a while wanted nothing to do with him. We went a long time between regret and hate and uncertainty not knowing for sure if we would ever see him again and not sure if we ever wanted to. We thought for sure one day we would hear about him again on the news and though news did travel of him being some sort of legend that was a terrifying sight we knew not much else. He reanimated corpses and joined as a teacher with the DWMA and that was the last we heard about him that is until you reached out to us. You have been a great detective in finding us and we cannot share our thanks enough with you for contacting us. We were in a terrible state and without your kind words and extension of forgiveness we would have never learned what had truly become of our son. You have done so much to set him on the straight and narrow and we couldn't be happier for him. We know he is very much the same but also very much different. If it means anything to him, we have always loved him to the very end. We hope, with his permission, we can visit you sometime. We will stay away if that is what he wants and we understand if that is so. We just want to see our boy again and the woman he will be calling his wife. Until then we hope to at least keep in contact with you. Forever grateful, _

_Your family. _

I must have stood there gaping forever…not sure what to say. Marie did not keep secrets usually but she went behind my back and got into contact with my parents and now I hear that they wish to mend things…. But can things be mended between us? Is it possible at all to stitch back the bonds that were severed at the seams? When searching for answers I looked no further than my golden haired fiancé and knew the answer all along. I always asked questions that had a simple answer she said. I could forgive them if she could forgive me if everyone could forgive me and if I could forgive me. It had been over 15 years since we spoke and things would be different now but they were my parents and she deserved to have some sort of family because her own didn't truly exist. Now she could have one with me.

Things would have to start anew as winter led into spring so forth would our future spring forth. I was glad she decided to talk to them, it was more than I could manage doing. I had been, dare I even say, afraid of ever speaking to them again. I don't even know what might have happened if we met somewhere at some point. I don't blame them for turning me into this I was this always and I'm not mad at them for turning me away...not anymore. It was no longer time for anger or hate or bitterness or contempt. A new era was beginning and Asura was defeated at last. Time to wipe the slate clean.

"I'm willing to see past our differences and move on… if they want to visit us then that's fine… but don't expect them to be like me. I just came out wrong."

"No, my love, you came out just right. You liked what you liked and that hasn't changed even with me around. They didn't know how to handle something different, most people don't but I did. I continue to push past and not see what is different as bad but as good. Of course there is a part of me that wishes they hadn't turned tail and left you alone…but I had to reach out. I couldn't leave us broken… I wanted us to be a family. You want that too, right?"

"Of course...I want to have a family with you. Before you my life was a hell within hell. It won't be without issue, especially now with them in the picture and who knows what will come down the line? But I don't care… I have you and you are all you I need."

"Don't be so sure it's just you and I," She said with a hidden smile before placing my hand on her stomach without explaining a thing.

She didn't need to. I could feel it pulsating inside of her deep. It was her heart and my heart beating as one but there was something else there too. My life was full of surprises and wonder with her here. Now I sit here, unsure of the future and what exactly it holds but know that it will always hold her in it, standing firm by my side and as she grew our love our love grew into something more. The start of a family did not just entail adding my parents back along into the mix but now involved a tiny glowing orb floating inside of her.

Now what was once going to be a family of just two had blossomed into three. A husband I would be and a father soon after. I had a million thoughts and a million things I wanted to say and a million things to feel but I didn't pay them any mind. There would always be one thing keeping me going and keeping me from slipping back into the brink and that no matter what came our way no matter what adversities we face, even now having to raise a child there was always one thing that would stand the test of time. She will always be there for me and I will always be there for her. Our love is stronger than any madness, any evil, any injustice, any black blood, anything. It has been and will always be she and I forever. She and I until we can't.


End file.
